A carved wooden dragon is one of many adornments in a tea room at the new AIG offices in San Mateo, Calif., on Monday, October 31, 2016. The company has opened a new office in San Mateo to sell insurance to Asians, primarily Asian americans and to a lesser extent, asian foreign nationals. All of its sales people must speak an asian language, and 95 percent are asian americans. Its office has what it calls a "tea room" for clients and a lot of asian-themed artwork. less

A carved wooden dragon is one of many adornments in a tea room at the new AIG offices in San Mateo, Calif., on Monday, October 31, 2016. The company has opened a new office in San Mateo to sell insurance to ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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The main conference room displays Chinese artwork at the new AIG offices in San Mateo, Calif., on Monday, October 31, 2016. The company has opened a new office in San Mateo to sell insurance to Asians, primarily Asian americans and to a lesser extent, asian foreign nationals. All of its sales people must speak an asian language, and 95 percent are asian americans. Its office has what it calls a "tea room" for clients and a lot of asian-themed artwork. less

The main conference room displays Chinese artwork at the new AIG offices in San Mateo, Calif., on Monday, October 31, 2016. The company has opened a new office in San Mateo to sell insurance to Asians, ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

AIG opens San Mateo insurance office focused on Asian Americans

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Insurance giant American International Group has opened an office in San Mateo to market life insurance primarily to Asian Americans and, to a lesser extent, Asian citizens living in the United States.

All salespeople in the office must be bilingual in English and an Asian language. About 95 percent of the staff is Asian American, said Elaine Liu, AIG vice president and chief marketing officer for Asian Markets.

The office has Asian art, signs in English and Chinese and meeting spaces that look, vaguely, like tea rooms. At its grand opening last month, there was a lion dance and tea ceremony.

Although the office will sell insurance to anyone, it is “specifically designed to serve Asian American consumers,” the company said in a press release.

It’s part of what AIG calls its “Asian markets initiative,” announced in July 2015. The initiative is what remains of AIG’s in-house insurance sales network after it was drastically downsized in January. Most of AIG’s life policies are sold through independent agents.

Many U.S. companies focus on Asians or other ethnic groups, though usually not to the extent that AIG is doing with its internal staff. Several California banks, including East West Bank and Cathay Bank, have deep roots in the Asian American community.

Photo: AIG

The grand opening of AIG’s San Mateo office last month a lion dance.

The grand opening of AIG’s San Mateo office last month a lion dance.

AIG started in 1919 in Shanghai, but moved its headquarters to New York City in 1939. It sells a wide range of commercial and consumer insurance. Global life insurance accounted for about 12.4 percent of operating revenue and 9.2 percent of operating income in the first nine months of this year, but it’s a slow-growing business.

But they are underserved when it comes to life insurance, said John Deremo, executive vice president of AIG Financial Distributors. “About 30 percent of the (U.S.) population does not own individual life insurance.” Among Asian Americans, “it’s 45 percent.”

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

A vase against the window of the main conference room at the new AIG offices in San Mateo, Calif., on Monday, October 31, 2016. The company has opened a new office in San Mateo to sell insurance to Asians, primarily Asian americans and to a lesser extent, asian foreign nationals. All of its sales people must speak an asian language, and 95 percent are asian americans. Its office has what it calls a "tea room" for clients and a lot of asian-themed artwork.

A vase against the window of the main conference room at the new...

Liu said AIG salespeople in California “who have been targeting the Asian markets, particularly Chinese markets, have shown production levels almost twice as much as the general market. So it makes a lot of business sense for us to put more focus, more language and cultural support” behind this market.

Although the focus is on Chinese Americans, the office caters to all Asian groups, and it has materials in nine languages.

AIG’s San Mateo office has about 40 salespeople and 50 employees overall, with about 10 more in a satellite office in San Jose. “I’d like to see it grow significantly. There are very strong demographics in that part of the country to support more robust growth,” Deremo said.

AIG opened its first Asian-themed office in Pasadena last summer. It has 50 to 60 sales reps. It has another office in Rockville, Md., with 30 to 40 reps. AIG plans to expand the concept to Houston and Northern New Jersey.

Last fall, however, activist investors Carl Icahn and John Paulson, whose companies own stakes in AIG, began urging the company to cut costs and split into three pieces, to avoid the regulatory burden that comes with being a “systemically important financial institution” (a.k.a. too big to fail). AIG was bailed out during the financial crisis, but has no government ownership now.

AIG has resisted breaking up, but has shed some noncore operations and cut costs. In early January, it quietly and abruptly shut down all but four of its 178 AIG Financial Network offices around the country. The company did not disclose the number of layoffs involved, but at the time the network had about 1,500 employees. Before the shutdown, the network accounted for about 10 percent of AIG’s life insurance sales.

The only offices that remained open were Pasadena, Rockville, Pleasanton and Daly City. The latter two closed later and were consolidated into the San Mateo office.

Although the remaining offices are catering mainly to Asian Americans, the company began marketing to foreign citizens living in the United States toward the end of last year, Liu said. “We can provide services and products” to customers who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents (green card holders), although they must meet certain requirements.

Among other things, they must have a bank account in the United States. They also must own real estate, have a business or investment account here, or be an employee of a U.S. company. They also must be in the United States at least 15 days a year and purchase the policy here.

Other U.S. companies also market life insurance to wealthy foreign citizens, who might want it for a variety of tax, investment and estate-planning reasons.